A blueprint for eerie mystery- the altered scales of Erik Satie

Two interesting things about the scale that I'll describe using theory:

First is that both the 6th and 7th scale degrees are independently variable- they float freely between natural minor (b6th b7th) melodic minor (#6th #7th) harmonic minor (b6th, #7th) and dorian (#6th, b7th) There is very different from classical music, where you would generally only raise the 6th and 7th to play an ascending line over a dominant V chord.

Second, the 4th scale degree is sharp (a tritone up from the root, as in the Lydian mode). But unlike Lydian, we are in minor, so playing up the scale requires the interval of an augmented 2nd between scale degrees 3 and 4. Melodic augmented 2nd intervals are rarely found in classical music, and are culturally associated with foreign music, especially the middle east.

Rather than writing cycles of dissonant dominants that resolve inevitably to consonant tonic chords, he seems to choose chords for their color (somewhat similar to modern pop and rock), solidifying unusual progressions through repetition. He also rejects long or complex development sections, instead presenting a succession of themes and repetiions. (ABAB) The resulting music is fairly simplistic, yet cohesive. That's a good thing- it makes it easier for us to play and assimilate!

Here is a video with a few more of his works:

And you can grab the sheet music here: https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Satie,_Erik

A little extra context for those interested:
Satie didn't like being called a musician, preferring the term "phonometrician" (sound measurer). I would like to think this is his way of saying he preferred writing "vibe music". He was living and writing in late 19th/early 20th century Paris, the epicenter of the impressionist movement, so he would have fit right in. For reasons I won't pretend to understand, Paris had inherited the role of "cultural capital of western civilization" from Vienna. As aggressive nationalism was still a thing in Europe at the time, French musicians understandably felt the need to create something distinct from what they perceived as the mathematically strict, structurally rigid, intellectual legacy of German music. (Funny how Germans are still known for precision engineering, think BMW.) Ravel and Debussy are the most famous composers of the impressionist movement, also great to study as "vibe music" but with a cohesive, leading structural unity.

 

Also here is a wonderful modern rendition of the above piece by Lebanese violinist Claude Chaloub: